MLB Audience Is Aging

[TheBigA]

This is mainly an article about TV, but I'm sure it also applies to radio. Not good news if the advertisers are trying to reach younger people.

Apparently, baseball play by play is not the way to do it.

https://morningconsult.com/2018/03/27/mlb-pace-play-changes-unlikely-help-baseball-viewership/

On the TV side, it explains why you see little live baseball on network TV.

 

[KeithE4]

This is mainly an article about TV, but I'm sure it also applies to radio. Not good news if the advertisers are trying to reach younger people.

Apparently, baseball play by play is not the way to do it.

https://morningconsult.com/2018/03/27/mlb-pace-play-changes-unlikely-help-baseball-viewership/

On the TV side, it explains why you see little live baseball on network TV.

There's been little live baseball on network TV since there's been TV. Baseball is a local sport, not national like the NFL. The networks have aired one to three games per week pretty much forever. Early on, it was ABC, with the addition of CBS when they owned the Yankees. Then it was NBC for may years, and so on through ESPN, Fox, and TBS.

AFAIK, no team is looking to abandon airing games on radio or TV anytime soon.

 

[CTListener]

There's been little live baseball on network TV since there's been TV. Baseball is a local sport, not national like the NFL. The networks have aired one to three games per week pretty much forever.

From the time I became a fan in the mid-'60s through the mid-'70s, network baseball was one day a week, Saturday afternoon on NBC, and my home team, the Red Sox, would televise weekend games and one or maybe two during the week, maximum.That was because the Red Sox were on a network affiliate all those years and prime time was too popular and profitable to pre-empt for baseball. Once the Sox moved to independent WSBK around 1975, though, just about every game was televised.

 

[boombox4]

Baseball's audience not only is aging out apparently, but the sport seems to hold little urban or immigrant interest, which doesn't help its growth much.

I think the defensive nature of baseball -- since the big hitters went away due to the juicing scandals of the 90's -- also hasn't helped the sport any. Who wants to see (or hear) a game full of nothing but pitchers striking most of the batters out? That's OK if it's a big game like the World Series -- where so much is riding on the action -- but overall the defensive nature of baseball about as exciting to your average viewer as watching paint dry.

 

[TheBigA]

AFAIK, no team is looking to abandon airing games on radio or TV anytime soon.

However, unlike football, it seems mainly on AM radio. Or AM with FM simulcast.

And I doubt any team wants to abandon broadcast. Lots of revenue there.

The question is how many broadcasters will be fighting for baseball deals. Cumulus already said they were losing money with the White Sox.

 

[KeithE4]

However, unlike football, it seems mainly on AM radio. Or AM with FM simulcast.

True, and some of those stations are 50 kW blowtorches. But if there were no listeners and no advertisers, there'd be no broadcasts. Baseball on radio seems to be doing just fine. Not everybody is listening online via TuneIn Premium or MLB At Bat. And besides, we can't watch games on TV while driving.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Baseball airs on many of the same old line news/talk AMs that are dying. WLW, WCCO, WGN, WCBS, KMOX, etc. It is very likely that baseball radio listenership is very old.

There are two problems with baseball for young adults into middle age:
- The games last far too long. I arbitrarily picked the White Sox. In 2017, their games lasted an average of 3h 10m, and 28 games went longer than 3h 30m. Maybe its the guy who spent ages working AM drive talking, but I think it is unreasonable to expect working people with kids to stay up until between 10 and 10:30 (Chicago time) to watch their team's games. Ideally for me, the typical baseball game is more like 2h 30m and the long ones go 3hr.

- There are far too many games. If you decide to dedicate yourself to watching your team on television 5 or 6 days a week, you can't have a life. So in that way, it kind of lends itself to retirees.

 

[TheBigA]

True, and some of those stations are 50 kW blowtorches. But if there were no listeners and no advertisers, there'd be no broadcasts. Baseball on radio seems to be doing just fine.

I think what the article is saying is that as the audience ages, the league is concerned about the trend ten years ahead as the audience dies off.

 

[KeithE4]

I think what the article is saying is that as the audience ages, the league is concerned about the trend ten years ahead as the audience dies off.

I heard this kind of talk 30 years ago. Baseball gains a new fan-base with each generation, like all sports. Lots of kids going to ball games these days. Baseball's attendance gets better every year, both the big leagues and the minors. The radio and TV audience will follow, one way or another. Please note that WGN had no trouble snapping up the White Sox after WLS was forced to drop them. And they're not very good right now.

 

[CTListener]

I think what the article is saying is that as the audience ages, the league is concerned about the trend ten years ahead as the audience dies off.

It's not like younger people aren't following baseball anymore. It's just not their top sport and games practically every day for six months aren't on their TV viewing radar. Aren't TV audiences for ALL the major team sports on the old-ish side, anyway? The NFL is very popular among younger sports fans, but I'm pretty sure its average Sunday afternoon viewer is still in his or her 50s, not too far off the average age of the baseball viewer. It's that short attention span thing, I think. Anecdotally, I work with a couple of 30-something NFL fans who pretty much only watch NFL Red Zone on Sundays -- they see only the exciting stuff and they get to watch their fantasy league numbers accumulate at the same time.

 

[TheBigA]

I heard this kind of talk 30 years ago. Baseball gains a new fan-base with each generation, like all sports.

If all that's true, then why is the league investigating changing the tempo of the game? According to the article, it's because the audience is aging.

It's not like younger people aren't following baseball anymore.

I didn't say they weren't. That's a completely different story. I'm also not talking about attendance. Going to a game is a different experience from watching it on TV or listening to it on the radio. In fact watching and listening are very different too. I know a lot of kids who play fantasy baseball, the way they do fantasy football. But that has nothing to do with kids turning on their transistor and listening to radio play by play. That's what this is about.

 

[KeithE4]

If all that's true, then why is the league investigating changing the tempo of the game? According to the article, it's because the audience is aging.

It's not because the audience is aging. It's because of too many commercial breaks, slow pitchers, and batters that dick around at the plate. Those things have been going on for decades.

But that has nothing to do with kids turning on their transistor and listening to radio play by play. That's what this is about.

Listening to their what? They're probably listening via TuneIn Premium or MLB At Bat on their smartphone or tablet. They're still listening to radio broadcasts, but I don't know how that translates to ratings for the flagship stations.

 

[TheBigA]

It's not because the audience is aging. It's because of too many commercial breaks, slow pitchers, and batters that dick around at the plate. Those things have been going on for decades.

But the fact is the audience for baseball is aging, and the league thinks speeding up the game will make the game appeal more to younger viewers. At least so says the linked article. There will be some rule changes when the new season begins this weekend.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

If all that's true, then why is the league investigating changing the tempo of the game? According to the article, it's because the audience is aging.

The article is wrong. The league is changing the rules of the game because the new Commissioner of Baseball needed something to do. Bud Selig retired in a time of prosperity for baseball, so Rob Manfred decided to try and speed up games so it would look like he was doing something.

As I wrote last night, his changes to date are totally inconsequential. In fact, last year's 3h 5m average game time across baseball was a record high, despite Manfred making "pace of play" rule changes every season he has been commissioner.

 

[TheBigA]

The article is wrong.

So you're saying the audience is not aging? Do you have some proof?

The article quoted a survey, so I assume you have a similar one?

 

[landtuna]

When I was a kid in the 50's my school was right across the street from my house so I used to come home for lunch every school day. In the living room I would always find my mother sitting at her ironing board and watching the game of the day on TV. In her life that was a "pastime" - something that doesn't exist for young adults today.

As kids, we all played baseball and collected cards of our favorite baseball players. There were no other televised major sports nationwide at that time with the possible exception of college football. I don't know of any of my boyhood buddies that still follow baseball. My three sons all played Little League but they all opted for faster games as they grew older. Some of the larger Eastern cities seem to still attract major league crowds but that doesn't translate to the smaller cities or those outside the East. It isn't like the good old days when baseball was essentially the only game in town.

The TV stations in my metro area take every opportunity to plug the baseball and football teams but ignore basketball and hockey entirely. High school sports get more coverage.

For me, baseball on TV is way too slow - almost as slow and irritating as golf. There is enough time between plays that the announcer and color guy can tell endless stories about the old days or a player's statistics.

I loved to play baseball when I was young but watch or listen to it? Nah!

 

[PTBoardOp94]

So you're saying the audience is not aging? Do you have some proof?

No, that's not what I said. The audience for baseball and just about every other sport is aging rapidly, because people under age 30 have a much lower interest in sports than baby boomers,and also watch a lot less television in general.

What I disputed, and I wrote this very specifically, is the attribution of causation between younger viewers tuning out baseball, and the pace of play rule changes from the Commissioner of Baseball. Rob Manfed has not said he is chasing younger viewers with the rule changes, because it is not younger viewers who make such complaints. It is the existing viewer, who has been asked to give another 3-5 minutes per game to baseball almost every season for the last 90 years.

My advice to Manfred, though: sports leagues should not push away their older viewers to chase younger ones, or they will end up like NASCAR, alienating everyone.